Chapter 3

BEAMS OF SUN RAYS STREAMED ACROSS my bedroom  unto my face waking me up. I yawned, sat up and looked at the curtains where kezira stood. She was already fully dressed in a brown simple gown made in Revillonian style  which is our disguise. Presto, the palace designer came last night after dinner with boxes full of clothing, underthings, jewellery, and the head scarves worn by the Revillon women .

The people of Revillon are very superstitious and it is believed that some piece of magic still dwells there. They tell the story of the gods quite differently, while we in Gaham remember the gods for the wicked, selfish, powerful ancients they are. The Revillionians worship them, they paint pictures of the war as a sacred thing, they believe in the gifts bestowed by the gods. Fools, the lot of them, their gods have abandoned them but they don't know it yet.

"We leave today, so I would like to sleep in, if I'm going to give a stellar performance then I need all the rest I can get." I mumbled as I went back to bed.

"You can sleep all you want on the way, We need to leave now if  we want to get there by nightfall. So get up." Kezira said as she tried to pull me up from the bed.

I got up and got dressed, even though I resent my queen for the decision she made I  understand the gravity of the situation. I  will definitely come back to fight with my men if it comes down to it, but for now I  will do as she has told me, who knows maybe I'll learn a secret or two about Revillon which will be useful should I ever need to blackmail them or wage a war against them.

With my new plan of world domination forming in my mind, I went about the process of creating my new identity quite swiftly, I  was dressed in their clothes and given an identity card to flash  at the Revillon borders. Apparently, my new name is Marissa I don't like it, too common. But common is good, common is inconspicuous, I won't stick out just because of my name. Next I had my waist length blond hair coloured  black, the shade of midnight. The only thing that could not be  changed was my eyes.

I had green eyes rimmed with grey, a bit unusual as both my parents had brown eyes but it was a gift, as much a weapon as the blades I  learnt to use from a young age. I was beautiful and I knew it.

We finished preparations quickly, it seems I was the last to know about the evacuation plan. At exactly 5 minutes passed noon, we left the Gaham empire for Revillon.

The road was dusty, and the coach i sat in was covered in frills. Somebody has burned insense in here to make it smell nice perhaps, but all it made me was sick, vehemently sick. I tried to convince Kezira who sat beside me to let me ride outside on one of the horses but it seems the queen had anticipated my request because she banned Kezira from letting me out of the coach.

I was highly uncomfortable in the too thick material used to make Revillonian attire. Kezira kept trying to chat with me but her voice was just a distant buzz, and slowly my vision began to close in. I  cried out in alarm, and I vaguely registered Kezira trying to calm me down before I  got sucked down into that black hole. Suddenly I  felt something strange like the feeling of iron nails being dragged along the floor, the sound hurt my heard and  I screamed until I  felt something warm drip from my nose.

'STOP ...'

A voice seemed to say to me, the feeling stopped. I opened my eyes and saw kezira pouring some water on my head, I tried to sit up but my head was pounding so much, I layed back down. I put my fingers to my nose, when I looked at it, it was stained with blood.

"Zura, are you okay? i think you're having an allergic reaction to something "

"I don't know, i feel sick maybe it's the headscarf " I replied as I took off the head scarf covering my hair and most of my shoulders.

"Tell me, exactly how you feel" Kezira asked.

I couldn't reply, not when I  remembered what the voice had said in that hole.

"Kezira , stop the coach, stop the procession,  tell everyone to stop!" I yelled as I jumped from the chair ignoring the pounding in my head.

"Why? What's going on, we can't just stop the procession without a valid reason."

I tried to listen to her but the pounding in my head was so much, I pushed her out of the way and tried to open the coach, the door was locked.

"Kezira why is this door locked? Open it now" 

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, not until you sit down and explain to me what the hell is going on. The queen said to keep the door  locked at all times until we cross the border and get to Revillon." Kezira replied as she tried to calm me down.

But all I could think of is what would happen if we didn't stop the coach.

"Kezira I'm serious open this coach now" I yelled.

"okay, fine! what is wrong with you, you just had an allergy spell and now you're yelling at me to open the coach. I mean take a look at yourself, your nose is bleeding Arielle. At least take a sit and let me clean your nose, I'll op

en up the door when were done."

I should have said no, I would have refused  but I saw the determination on Kezira's face. She had never spoken to me like that, but then I had never yelled at her like that either, so I sat down back and allowed her to clean my nose. 

She was painfully slow, I  was going crazy from the possiblity of something bad happening to us and she was humming. she hummed some ancient tune as she sat down beside me and began to clean the dried blood from my nose.

When she finished at last, she took out the keys to the coach and unlocked the door, but before I  could step out and yell for the procession to stop I heard that strange voice again.

'TOO LATE...'

And that was the last thing I heard before our coach crashed and the world went black.